https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/blips/blips?ref=project_link
BLIPS: Turn your phone into a microscope
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Laser-assisted direct ink writing of planar and 3D metal architectures
The ability to pattern planar and freestanding 3D metallic architectures at the microscale would enable myriad applications, including flexible electronics, displays, sensors, and electrically small antennas. A 3D printing method is introduced that combines direct ink writing with a focused laser that locally anneals printed metallic features “on-the-fly.” To optimize the nozzle-to-laser separation distance, the heat transfer along the printed silver wire is modeled as a function of printing speed, laser intensity, and pulse duration. Laser-assisted direct ink writing is used to pattern highly conductive, ductile metallic interconnects, springs, and freestanding spiral architectures on flexible and rigid substrates.
Source: Laser-assisted direct ink writing of planar and 3D metal architectures
Study shows phone metadata is much more sensitive than top spies admit
In a study published online Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Stanford University researchers demonstrated how they used publicly available sources—like Google searches and the paid background-check service Intelius—to identify “the overwhelming majority” of their 823 volunteers based only on their anonymized call and SMS metadata.
Using data collected through a special Android app, the Stanford researchers determined that they could easily identify people based on their call and message logs.
The results cast doubt on claims by senior intelligence officials that telephone and Internet “metadata”—information about communications, but not the content of those communications—should be subjected to a lower privacy threshold because it is less sensitive.
Contrary to those claims, the researchers wrote, “telephone metadata is densely interconnected, susceptible to reidentification, and enables highly sensitive inferences.” Study shows phone metadata is much more sensitive than top spies admit
Backblaze releases billion-hour hard drive reliability report
Backblaze has released new data from its hard drive reliability survey. Seagate has recovered dramatically since BB pulled their 3TB drives, but HGST leads the pack in minimum failure rates.
Source: Backblaze releases billion-hour hard drive reliability report | ExtremeTech
Swarm A.I. Correctly Predicts the Kentucky Derby, Accurately Picking all Four Horses of the Superfecta at 540 to 1 Odds – showing that humans can swarm
Until recently, the human species has been unable to take advantage of this fundamental biological technique, for we didn’t evolve the ability to swarm. Enter Unanimous A.I., a Silicon Valley startup founded in 2014 by serial entrepreneur and researcher Dr. Louis Rosenberg. The core question Rosenberg set out to answer was: Can humans swarm, and if so can we amplify our intelligence beyond the ability of individuals? The answer appears to be a resounding yes.
Unanimous spent the last two years building a swarm intelligence platform called UNU that enables groups to get together as online swarms — combining their thoughts, opinions, and intuitions in real-time to answer questions, make predictions, reach decisions, and even play games as a unified collective intelligence. To quantify how smart these UNU swarms really are, researchers at Unanimous regularly convene swarms and ask them to make predictions on high profile events, testing whether or not many minds are truly better than one.
UNU has made headlines in recent months by predicting the Oscars better than the experts, even besting the renowned forecasters at FiveThirtyEight. UNU also surprised the sports world by predicting the NCAA college bowl games with 70% accuracy against the spread, earning +34% return on Vegas odds. But still, the fact that average people could use UNU to amplify their collective intelligence so dramatically was met with cautious resistance.
Enter Hope Reese, a reporter from TechRepublic. Two weeks ago, she challenged Unanimous A.I. to use UNU to predict the winners of the Kentucky Derby.
Italian Military to Save Up to 29 Million Euro by Migrating to LibreOffice
Following on last year’s bold announcement that they will attempt to migrate from proprietary Microsoft Office products to an open-source alternative like LibreOffice, Italy’s Ministry of Defense now expects to save up to 29 million Euro with this move.
We said it before, and we’ll say it again, this is the smartest choice a government institution can do. And to back up this statement, the Italian Ministry of Defense announced that they expect to save between 26 and 29 million Euro over the next few years by migrating to the LibreOffice open-source software for productivity and adopting the Open Document Format (ODF).
“Taking into account the deadlines set by our current Microsoft Office licenses, we will have 75,000 (70%) LibreOffice users by 2017, and an additional 25,000 by 2020,” said General Camillo Sileo, Deputy Chief of Department VI, Systems Department C4I, for the Transformation of Defence and General Staff, for ISA (Interoperability Solutions for European Public Administrations).
“5,000 workstations have been migrated until now”In the initial report, they said that the entire transition process from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice is expected to be completed by the end of the year 2016, and now the Italian Ministry of Defense brags about the fact that they’ve successfully migrated a total of 5,000 workstations, and they’re now working with LibreItalia on an e-learning course to teach the military staff how to use the LibreOffice office suite.
Source: Italian Military to Save Up to 29 Million Euro by Migrating to LibreOffice
Unfortunately, the guys at LibreOffice won’t see any of these savings go to their pockets. They will continue to slave away underpaid at their beautiful product with nothing to show for it. This is because the FOSS (Free Open Source Software) community is so hard core in their principles that they allow companies to wander all over them. What a world we live in, eh.
36 firms at risk from that unpatched 2010 SAP vuln? Try 500+
ERPScan, the ERP security specialist firm which originally discovered the misconfiguration flaw (research pdf here), said that Onapsis’s figures on exposure to the vulnerability are optimistic by more than an order of magnitude.
Alexander Polyakov, CTO at ERPScan, told El Reg that its research suggests as many as 533 organisations are at risk.
“Onapsis said that 36 organizations were actually breached,” Polyakov told El Reg. “Our assumption is that all of them were just examples of vulnerable systems which white-hats publish on their forum.”
“Onapsis’ assumption that those publications on Chinese forum are examples of cyberattacks is wrong. I agree with them is that there are many vulnerably systems (533 at least) and some people probably hacked them for real profit. Not just published a screenshot of potential deface but really performed [a} cyberattack.”
Source: 36 firms at risk from that unpatched 2010 SAP vuln? Try 500+
Linksys WRT routers won’t block open source firmware despite FCC rules
Linksys has been collaborating with chipmaker Marvell and the makers of OpenWrt to make sure its latest WRT routers can comply with the new rules without blocking open source firmware, company officials told Ars.
Linksys’s effort stands in contrast with TP-Link, which said it would entirely prevent loading of open source firmware on its routers to satisfy the new Federal Communications Commission requirements.
Blocking third-party firmware is the easiest way to comply with the FCC rules, which aim to limit interference with other devices by preventing user modifications that cause radios to operate outside their licensed RF (radio frequency) parameters.
Source: Linksys WRT routers won’t block open source firmware despite FCC rules
France Is Getting Closer To Banning After-Work Emails
The bill would make businesses come up with hours during which employees cannot check or send emails.
And it comes as workers are finding it increasingly difficult to detach themselves from work, Socialist MP Benoit Hamon told BBC News.
“Employees physically leave the office, but they do not leave their work,” he said.
“They remain attached by a kind of electronic leash — like a dog. The texts, the messages, the emails — they colonize the life of the individual to the point where he or she eventually breaks down.”
[…]
A 2015 study from the Center for Creative Leadership, an executive education firm, Center for Creative Leadershipfound that employees who use smartphones end up working as much as 13.5 hours every day — and as many as 72 hours every week when you include weekends.
The research also found that people are only spending about three hours every day on activities such as working out and family time.
But subjects in that study didn’t blame technology for their extra work hours — they blamed their employers’ lousy time and people management.
“While technology may be a logical scapegoat, it is actually just a new-age mask for an age-old problem: poor management and poor leadership,” the report said.
Source: France Is Getting Closer To Banning After-Work Emails
Runkeeper is secretly tracking you around the clock and sending your data to advertisers
The NCC, a consumer rights watchdog, is conducting an investigation into 20 apps’ terms and conditions to see if the apps do what their permissions say they do and to monitor data flows. Tinder has already been reported to the Norwegian data protection authority for similar breaches of privacy laws. The NCC’s investigation into Runkeeper discovered that user location data is tracked around the clock and gets transmitted to a third party advertiser in the U.S. called Kiip.me.
Source: Runkeeper is secretly tracking you around the clock and sending your data to advertisers
Apple says it doesn’t know why iTunes users are losing their music files
In an extremely small number of cases users have reported that music files saved on their computer were removed without their permission. We’re taking these reports seriously as we know how important music is to our customers and our teams are focused on identifying the cause. We have not been able to reproduce this issue, however, we’re releasing an update to iTunes early next week which includes additional safeguards. If a user experiences this issue they should contact AppleCare.
Source: Apple says it doesn’t know why iTunes users are losing their music files | The Verge
oops
SoloLearn: Learn to code in bite sized portions for free
Courses in C++, Java, Javascript, Python3, PHP, C#, Swift, HTML, CSS and SQLCourses | SoloLearn: Learn to code for FREE!
Fathom – AI Neural Network learning accelerator on a USB stick
Movidius is also introducing the Fathom Neural Compute Stick — the first product of its kind — a modular deep learning accelerator in the form of a standard USB stick. Featuring a full-fledged Myriad 2 VPU, the Fathom Neural Compute Stick not only enables rapid prototyping, but also delivers high levels of neural network compute to existing devices via a USB port.
Source: Fathom | Machine Vision Technology | Movidius
120 sided dice
Real life hoverboard
This weekend, after much doubt as to whether his latest creation was real or not, jet ski champion Franky Zapata set a new Guinness World Record for the farthest hoverboard flight. I was there when it happened, and I’m here to tell you that this thing is real, and it’s spooky how it just hangs there, mid-air, until Franky bends his knees and zooms off toward the horizon. Here’s how he did it.
Source: This Is The Hoverboard We’ve All Been Dreaming Of
4 jet engines!
FindFace Facial Recognition Service Becomes a Weapon Against Russian Porn Actresses
Users of the Russian imageboard “Dvach” (2chan) have launched a campaign to deanonymize Russian actresses who appear in pornography, utilizing a controversial new service called “FindFace.”
Source: Facial Recognition Service Becomes a Weapon Against Russian Porn Actresses – Global Voices Advocacy
What a bunch of pissants – using a creepy stalker app to then send the contacts of porn actresses porn pictures of their friends. To me it sounds like these guys are so jealous of people having sex whilst they never will, that they’d rather just spoil it for everyone and try to make sure there are no more porn actresses.
Who’s downloading pirated papers on sci-hub? Everyone
An exclusive look at data from the controversial web site Sci-Hub reveals that the whole world, both poor and rich, is reading pirated research papers.
Source: Who’s downloading pirated papers? Everyone
Malware and non-malware ways for ATM jackpotting. Extended cut – Securelist
Millions of people around the world now use ATMs every day to withdraw cash, pay in to their account or make a variety of payments. Unfortunately, ATM manufacturers and their primary customers – banks – don’t pay much attention to the security of cash machines.
Source: Malware and non-malware ways for ATM jackpotting. Extended cut – Securelist
If you use Waze, hackers can stalk you, add thousands of ghost cars to divert your traffic
Researchers at the University of California-Santa Barbara recently discovered a Waze vulnerability that allowed them to create thousands of “ghost drivers” that can monitor the drivers around them—an exploit that could be used to track Waze users in real-time. They proved it to me by tracking my own movements around San Francisco and Las Vegas over a three-day period.
Here’s how the exploit works. Waze’s servers communicate with phones using an SSL encrypted connection, a security precaution meant to ensure that Waze’s computers are really talking to a Waze app on someone’s smartphone. Zhao and his graduate students discovered they could intercept that communication by getting the phone to accept their own computer as a go-between in the connection. Once in between the phone and the Waze servers, they could reverse-engineer the Waze protocol, learning the language that the Waze app uses to talk to Waze’s back-end app servers. With that knowledge in hand, the team was able to write a program that issued commands directly to Waze servers, allowing the researchers to populate the Waze system with thousands of “ghost cars”—cars that could cause a fake traffic jam or, because Waze is a social app where drivers broadcast their locations, monitor all the drivers around them.
Source: If you use Waze, hackers can stalk you
Cisco Finds Backdoor Installed on 12 Million PCs by French Advertiser Tuto4PC
Cisco’s Talos security intelligence and research group has come across a piece of software that installed backdoors on 12 million computers around the world.The software, which exhibits adware and spyware capabilities, was developed by a French online advertising company called Tuto4PC. The firm, previously known as Eorezo Group and apparently linked to another company called Wizzlabs, has been targeted by French authorities over its questionable practices regarding the installation of unwanted software and harvesting of users’ personal details.
[…]
Researchers determined that the application, installed with administrator rights, was capable not only of downloading and installing other software, such as a known scareware called System Healer, but also of harvesting personal information. Furthermore, experts found that the software is designed to detect the presence of sandboxes, antiviruses, security tools, forensic software and remote access doors.These “features” have led Cisco Talos to classify the Tuto4PC software as a “full backdoor capable of a multitude of undesirable functions on the victim machine.”
Source: Cisco Finds Backdoor Installed on 12 Million PCs | SecurityWeek.Com
Mad Scientist Builds Fully Functional Hoverbike
Because a thermite-blasting cannon isn’t crazy enough, Colin Furze used a pair of motors and propellers designed for parasailing to build himself a fully functional flying hoverbike. It’s easily one of the mad scientist’s most dangerous builds to date, but seeing how maneuverable it is almost makes us want to build one too.
Source: Mad Scientist Builds Fully Functional Hoverbike
Microsoft Office 365 Flaw Allowed Anyone To Log In To Almost Any Business Account
A severe vulnerability in the way Microsoft Office 365 handles federated identities via SAML put an attacker in a position to have access to any account and data, including emails and files stored in the cloud-based service. Microsoft pushed through a mitigation to the service on Jan. 5, seven hours after being notified by researchers Yiannis Kakavas and Klemen Bratec. “The attack surface was quite big (Outlook Online, OneDrive, Skype for Business, OneNote — depending on what the company has paid for in terms of licensing),” Kakavas and Bratec told Threatpost via email. “And a malicious user exploiting this vulnerability could have gained access to very sensitive private and company information (emails, internal documents etc. ).” Office 365 users who had configured domains as federated were affected. The list includes British Airways, Microsoft, Vodafone, Verizon and many others, as mentioned in a report published late Wednesday.
Source: Office 365 Flaw Allowed Anyone To Log In To Almost Any Business Account – Slashdot
Oops, don’t you love the cloud? 🙂
93.4m Mexican Voters Data found on open US server
In my hands is something dangerous. It is proof that someone moved confidential government data out of Mexico and into the United States. It is a hard drive with 93.4 million downloaded voter registration records— The Mexican voter database.
See the interview with Chris Vickery commenting on this breach:
Before going any further, let’s make one thing very clear. I’m not the one who transmitted the data out of Mexico. Someone else will have to answer for that. However, eight days ago (April 14th), I did discover a publicly accessible database, hosted on an Amazon cloud server, containing these records. There was no password or authentication of any sort required. It was configured purely for public access. Why? I have no clue.
After reporting the situation to the US State Department, DHS, the Mexican Embassy in Washington, the Mexican Instituto Nacional Electoral (INE), and Amazon, the database was finally taken offline April 22nd, 2016.
Under Mexican law, these files are “strictly confidential”, carrying a penalty of up to 12 years in prison for anyone extracting this data from the government for personal gain. We’re talking about names, home addresses, birthdates, a couple of national identification numbers, and a few other bits of info.
Source: BREAKING: Massive Breach of Mexican Voter Data – Blog – MacKeeper™
UK intel agencies spy indiscriminately on millions of innocent folks, have been since the 90s
The UK’s intelligence agencies (MI5, MI6, and GCHQ) are spying on everything you do, and with only the flimsiest of safeguards in place to prevent abuse, according to more than a thousand pages of documents published today as a result of a lawsuit filed by Privacy International.
The documents reveal the details of so-called “Bulk Personal Datasets,” or BPDs, which can contain “hundreds to millions of records” on people who are not suspected of any wrongdoing.
Source: UK intel agencies spy indiscriminately on millions of innocent folks
Franz – a free messaging app for Slack, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram and more
Franz is a free messaging app / former Emperor of Austria and combines chat & messaging services into one application. He currently supports Slack, WhatsApp, WeChat, HipChat, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Google Hangouts, GroupMe, Skype and many more. You can download Franz for Mac, Windows & Linux.
Source: Franz – a free messaging app for Slack, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram and more